Flathead logging project proposed ahead of USFWS opinion
Laura Lundquist
On Nov. 21, the Flathead National Forest published a draft environmental assessment of the Rumbling Owl logging project, which would affect about 6,200 acres within a 36,000-acre area between U.S. Highway 83 and the Bob Marshall Wilderness in the Swan Valley south of Condon. In an announcement, Acting Swan Lake District Ranger Clayton Cornwell said the project was intended to reduce wildfire risk within the wildland-urban interface and help diversify forest stands.
The environmental assessment says three-quarters of the 36,000-acre project area are within the wildland-urban interface as defined by the 2003 Healthy Forest Restoration Act. The Restoration Act defines the WUI as an area within 1.5 miles of an at-risk community or evacuation route.
The Flathead Forest proposes to commercially log 4,000 acres, which would include 850 acres of clearcutting. Eleven of the units to be clear cut exceed 40 acres, a limit the Northern Region of the Forest Service established for ecological reasons but for which it increasingly allows exceptions. Around 930 acres of the remaining area would be thinned, while 1,220 acres would undergo a prescribed burn. Thinning is used for stands that are less than 35 years old.
More than 2,500 acres within the project area qualify as old-growth forest, and the Forest Service would log close to 1,000 acres. However, the Forest Service has yet to finalize its amendment for preserving old-growth stands.
To service all the work, the Flathead Forest proposes to improve more than 41 miles of road and to build 4 miles of temporary road. It would also add 5 miles of road in a recently acquired section to the Forest Service system. About 3 miles of road would be demolished and restored to a natural state.
The project would take up to 10 years, although the commercial logging would be finished within five years.
The project is compliant with the 2018 Flathead Forest Management Plan, according to the environmental assessment. But the Forest Plan is still involved in a lawsuit, so environmental groups are wondering why the Flathead Forest is going ahead with the project.
In May 2022, Friends of the Wild Swan and the Swan View Coalition sued the Flathead National Forest, saying the 2018 Forest Plan created new definitions for different types of forest service roads that allow roads to proliferate beyond that which was previously allowed, and that threatens two species, grizzly bears and bull trout, protected by the Endangered Species Act.
The Flathead Forest had already started six logging projects with their associated roads. But three - Rumbling Owl, the nearby Mid-Swan and Dry Riverside near Hungry Horse - had yet to be approved and the plaintiffs asked the court to stop those.
After a Missoula federal district judge heard oral arguments in February 2024, Flathead Forest Supervisor Anthony Botello submitted a court declaration in April promising that if the court ordered the Fish and Wildlife Service to consider the effect of all roads in its biological opinion but didn’t stop the three pending projects, those projects wouldn’t be approved until the new biological opinion came out.
The Rumbling Owl assessment notes that threatened grizzly bears, Canada lynx, bull trout and wolverine exist in the project area. Logging would occur on almost 200 acres serviced by about a mile of road within a secure core area for grizzly bears. Logging would affect habitat in three lynx analysis units.
The environmental assessment says the project is “tiered off” or justified by the 2018 Forest Plan, but the forest plan is still under question as to whether it justifies building more project roads, said Arlene Montgomery of Friends of the Wild Swan.
“How are they complying with the court order?” said Arlene Montgomery. “There’s no analysis that addresses any of the deficiencies, and they’re operating without a biological opinion on their forest plan. We’ll be sending in comments.”
Michael Garrity of Alliance for the Wild Rockies said the project, particularly the clearcutting, would affect critical lynx habitat.
“This is roughly 40% of the landscape outside of unroaded areas of the Swan Mountains wilderness/study areas. This means that habitat connectivity will be reduced by 40% in roaded lands, which is clearly a significant loss and violation of the RFP standard to “maintain” habitat connectivity for lynx,” Garrity said. “The best available science doesn't support the Forest Service purpose and need for the Rumbling Owl project that logging makes wildfires more unlikely. Instead of logging forests the Forest Service should let them grow and continue to sequester carbon.”
The environmental analysis said consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would occur on how the project affects each species before the decision on the project is finalized.
The Fish and Wildlife Service will soon publish a revision of critical lynx habitat and a final recovery plan, which may have implications for the Rumbling Owl proposal.
Written comments will be accepted until Dec. 23. Online comments can be submitted at:https://cara.fs2c.usda.gov/
Contact reporter Laura Lundquist at lundquist@missoulacurrent.com.